Moalims

This is apropos The Express Tribune’s editorial published on June 7, 2015 entitled, “More funds for Higher Education” which requires correction of some basic facts.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is entrusted to cater to the recurring and development grants of public sector universities across the country, in all the seven federating units. The expenses pertain to the development projects of these institutions of higher learning, its 30,000 faculty members along with 1.4 million student body. The 2015-16 budget can boast a modest Rs0.5 billion increase in the development projects while the increase in recurring budget from last year’s Rs43 billion to Rs51 billion this year is a realisation of the expansion that has taken place in the sector with the increase in the number of universities, Centres of Excellence, Area Study Centres, etc which amount to 136 institutions in all.
There is no denying that primary and secondary education requires more investment. The Ministry of Education and Professional Training and CADD focus their attention on federally administered primary and secondary educational institutions whereas HEC deals with higher education throughout the country, and a comparison between the two is incompatible. The upcoming provincial budgets will no doubt address the requirements of provincial primary and secondary institutions.
However if the respected editorial team is interested to know more about the working and scope of HEC, we would be happy to share with you the details of our projects as well as budget and its distribution to the universities.

Aayesha Ikram
Director Media/Publications
Higher Education Commission

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2015.